Tuesday, March 29, 2011

It is 1989 and I am at school. Our French teacher – a real French Mademoiselle, with all that entails (worshipped resentfully by the boys, loathed by the girls) – requires us to say, en français, the name of our favourite act from the world of le musique pop.

So far every single member of the class has repeated the same phrase : “J’aime INXS.” I have watched them all say it, one by one, with growing disbelief. They cannot all ‘aime’ INXS, surely? What I am witnessing, I begin to realise, is the true ovine cowardice of modishness. I will come swiftly to despise it. Later, I will also come to despise kneejerk anti-modishness – i.e. the rejection of cultural items simply because they happen to be a la mode - which is itself a pose and a form of modishness.

When Mlle points to me, I declare that J’aime Bruce Springsteen. This is the simple truth, yet it is greeted with cruel sniggers from the INXS ‘fans’. I am not humiliated. From that moment, I swore loyalty to The Boss, by which I mean, I swore loyalty to myself. Ayn Rand would have been proud. Now I am a Daddy and I don’t need to be cool and my daughter sings “Woah woah woah woah Badlands!” from her car seat. I turn approvingly. “Let’s go,” I say, as I join the main road. “It’s a town full of losers and we’re pulling out of here to win….”

17 comments:

When I was at school, it was considered the height of naff to like Bruce Springsteen. Thankfully, I never did like Springsteen to I avoided any mocking.

Oddly enough, now that I'm older and wiser, I still think it's the height of naff to like Bruce Springsteen, though if I'm drunk enough, I might admit to have enjoyed the Seeger Sessions. But that's about it...

I recently concluded (yesterday in fact) that 'Backstreets' is the best song ever made.

He comes and goes, naff and trendwise, as all those with longevity must: Dylan, Bowie, Morrissey etc. The general pattern is that the nadir was in the 80s, but The Boss definitely had his in the early 90s before Ghost of Tom Joad.

I suppose the thing you've got to look at is: where is Springsteen now? Headlining Glasto. Where is Michael Hutchence? Not even a cool death.

have zero interest in Bruce Springsteen the man, but 'born to run' is definately one of the greatest pop songs ever I reckon (whether you like it or not, it's a high octane mix of all the correct ingredients)

How about this: Springsteen is for men who like to wear redneck shirts and torn jeans whilst clenching an oily rag clenched their buttocks whilst choking a 'bud' as they pick out something soft and luxurious from the latest IKEA catalogue.

I think that's my problem with him. He tries to be blue collar but I'm never convinced by it.

David - I'll see your Thunder Road and raise you a Backstreets, which begins One soft infested summer me and Terry become friends and includes the following in the middle:

...Sometimes it seemed you could hear the whole damn city crying,Blame it on the lies that killed us,Blame it on the truth that ran us down,You can blame it all on me, Terry, it don't matter to me now,Wen the breakdown hit at midnight there was nothing left to say,But I hated him and I hated you when you went away.